CVCI fund sale will exceed $2bn

A sale of fund of interests from Citi Venture Capital International, Citigroup’s former emerging markets private equity arm captive now owned by The Rohatyn Group, is expected to carry a price tag exceeding $2 billion dollars, according to three sources with knowledge of the deal.

Another source said that the deal would include a staple that could push it closer to $3 billion. Citigroup, TRG and Lazard, which is running the auction process, declined to comment.

One source said that the sale had been in market for a month without bids due to the complexity of coordinating global and emerging markets fund GPs, which comprise the portfolio; the LPs; and Citigroup clients, employees and Citigroup itself.

The source explained that Citigroup had originally offered the fund through a feeder fund to clients, also allowing Citigroup employees to invest, ramping up the complexity and scale of the deal now it had come to the secondaries market.

In September last year The Rohatyn Group acquired CVCI’s five funds with $4.3 billion in investments and committed capital; the combined entity operating under the name TRG with $6 billion in assets and investments.

Founded in 2001 as part of Citi’s alternative asset management platform Citi Capital Advisors, CVCI was one of Citi’s last remaining in-house private equity divisions.

Citigroup, which has had an extensive history in the asset class, has shed billions of alternative assets in its efforts to comply with US Dodd-Frank and Volcker regulations.